The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems (IHSs), and more particularly to systems and methods for configuring and managing a Data Center Bridging (DCB) IHS network.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Data Center Bridging (DCB) refers to a set of enhancements to Ethernet networks (e.g., local area networks (LANs) for use in data center environments. For example, for selected traffic in the network, DCB attempts to eliminate loss due to queue overflow and to allocate bandwidth on links. The configuration and management of IHS networks that utilize DCB raises a number of issues.
For example, in large-scale, multi-hop networks such as cloud networking environments, DCB becomes very complicated to configure and manage. Network administrators are forced to configure each Network Interface Controller (NIC) and switch port in the system, and just a few of the details involved in configuring and managing a DCB network include configuring switch ports for DCB exchange (DCBX), recovering from failures/notifications resulting from DCBX link-level exchanges (conventional DCB configuration is peer-to-peer using the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) via TLV units), and managing DCB parameters at each switch port in the DCB network, as well as at the ports on endpoint devices connected to the DCB network. Furthermore, making changes to DCB configuration following the initial configuration of a DCB network is very difficult, as a network administrator must manually make such configuration changes on all of the ports that connect a first endpoint device to a second endpoint device. Such complications and difficulties result in many network administrators deciding not to deploy Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) over Converged Ethernet (RoCE), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), and/or other network protocols with DCB enabled on their networks, as despite the ability of DCB to provide lossless behavior and Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities, the configuration/management hurdles become too high and networks with dynamically adjusting requirements become too burdensome.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved DCB network system.